Poser 9 crashes during render

I'm having issues with Poser 9 crashing during renders. It had been working fine up until now. I've had it happen using both M4 and V4. At first I thought it was 2 gadgets that Windows 7 was running that was causing the crashes. I deactivated them and the problem persists. Then I thought that maybe the EZSkin python script might be the culprit and wasnt up to date to run with SR1 update. That wasnt it. Then I thought that maybe it was my smooth angle in my general preferences since I had upped it from the default to try and fix a smoothing issue when importing to Carrara 8 Pro. That seemed to work on the M4 file I was working on, but then when I started a new file and was using V4 it happened again. In both instances I was using hair items that were Neftis' older products. I'm now beginning to wonder if the hair is the issue or if it's something altogether. I updated to SR2 thinking that would solve the problem, but it still persists. Any thoughts as to what could be the issue???

Oh I forgot to mention that I had the subsurface scattering and indirect light checked in the render preferences.

Thanks,
David

Comments

So 73 views and no replies? So far the only solution I've been able to come up with is to change the hair that I've used for each figure. For my M4 I was using the Anders Hair by Neftis. For my V4 character I was using Blaine by AprilYSH. Once I changed the hair out, Poser rendered and didnt crash. Not sure why those particular hairs was giving Poser fits. Any ideas???

Do you have your content installed in the program files? With Windows 7, it should be in the documents. I have used all the scripts and settings you described without major problems. Describe what happens when it "crashes", please.

I have my content installed in with my program files. These are the only two items that I've had this issue. What happens is after I get the scene the way I want it and I go and click render, sometimes it will load the texture maps, then calculate the indirect light pass, then it usually bombs when it is calculating the sub surface scatter. And sometimes it waits to bomb when it has done all the passes and is ready to render. All instances I will get the pop up window stating that Poser has encountered a problem and that Windows 7 is attempting to try and find a solution which usually ends up with another pop-up stating that I need to close Poser.

Your content should be installed with in the documents section. What you are experiencing is a problem with the way Windows 7 operates. I have Poser Pro 2012 (basically what you have with bells and whistles). On when installing, go with the recommendations for installation. It puts content in the program files, and everything works well. I usually put my Daz content in a separate runtime folder. This reduces other issues. BTW, one in a while, Poser crashes for no reason. Not often, but it does. Hope this helps.

What if I just move the problem children to the Windows documents folder? And wherebouts should I put it in the Documents folder? I have a lot of content and I really dont want to have move more than I have to.

Oh I forgot to mention that I had the subsurface scattering and indirect light checked in the render preferences.

Describe the "crash." Render seemed to stop completely? Render window closed and an error message appeared? Textures failed to load? Error crash of death message?
How much else was in your scene?
Are you using any AO lights?
Do you have any raytraced reflections or shadows?
Are any of your characters using SSS or AO skin mats?
What are your PC specs? (processor, RAM)

Sometimes with IDL a particular bucket takes EONS to render. It may be because it's applying AO to each piece of hair geometry. It also has to incorporate the SSS settings. All the other items listed above use considerable system resources. I've had several renders that I thought were crashed, only to walk away and then return to find them complete.

Obviously, if the render window snaps shut or you get the dreaded, "This application has encountered a fatal error and has closed" message, then none of this matters. I may be completely off base, but when my renders crash, this is where I start.

I'm using 2012 and I was having when I was doing a render Poser would just shut down. No warnings no nothing. I not sure if you are having a similar problem but my fix was my graphics card need updated. I have no clue what that would affect poser being as Poser don't use the graphic card for renders, but I updated it and I haven't had the problem since.

I'm running Poser on my laptop that I purchased new at Staples earlier this year. So I doubt it's the graphics card.

@KaribousBoutique: The first time it happened, I had M4 in the scene with the Anders Hair, custom morphs & textures by me and the turban from Blondie9999's persian fable. I had run the python script EZSkin on M4. I had one IBL light and a specular light in the scene. For render settings, I had the subsurface scatter box checked and the indirect light box checked. The smooth polygons box was also checked.

When I did an area render, Poser would load the textures, calculate the indirect lighting, do the subsurface scattering pass, and then when it would start in on the actual "rendering" that's when I would get the pop up window that stated that "Poser has encountered a problem and that Windows was attempting to find a solution to the problem." And after about a half a minute of doing that another pop up window would appear stating that I needed to close Poser by clicking on the button in the lower right of the window. And when I did that Poser shut down completely.

When I would attempt a full render with the image being 1500 pixels by 2100 pixels at 300 dpi. It would do the exact same thing.

I've also tried just putting a basic M4 in a new scene and run the EZSkin script and it rendered fine.

I later put V4 in a scene with the Blaine hair and the morphs and textures for Aurelie and then it started doing it again.

Last night I switched out hairs and tried a more simpler hair and it rendered fine close up, when I backed out and did a full body render, I got my error again.

I'm just wondering if the driver for the graphics card needs to be updated to match the upgrades for SR2.

I'm running Poser on my laptop that I purchased new at Staples earlier this year. So I doubt it's the graphics card.

Don't rule it out, a friend bought several very high end laptops direct from one of the major manufacturers (either Dell or Apple if memory serves) for his company. Turned out the laptop was incapable of sustaining the graphics card in operation, there just was no room to fit sufficient cooling, yet the manufacturer had been quite happy to market that configuration. If that kind of cock-up can slip through then a minor incompatibility between laptop and graphics driver for the card is entirely possible!

Checked the graphics card and the driver is up to date. So it looks like we roll back Poser and see if that helps. Had the crash happen again yesterday and all I had in the scene was M4 with a custom morph applied, some custom textures and the EZSkin setup. just doesnt make sense...

You could try running Poser in administrator mode. This solved some strange crashes i was having (have the poser content in my program files directory, and no more crashes anymore :-) )

Right click on the poser icon -> properties -> select compatibility tab -> check " authority level" to execute the program as admnistrator (not sure this is the correct translation for the English windows 7 version, but it is at the bottom).

Tried that and it still happened. Did a reinstall and still have the same issue. Noticed that it tends to happen anytime there's a "subsurface" node hooked up. I had a character I loaded last night and it would render fine. The node setup was beyond basic but didnt use a "subsurface" node. I went and ran the EZSkin script and then re-rendered. After it went thru all it's different passes and started the render pass it crashed. I guess I wont be using the EZSkin python script if I'm planning on rendering in Poser. :(

The only other thing i can think of, is a memory problem while rendering. Poser 9 is 32 bit and can only use approximately 3.6 gb memory (depending on the system, but the 32 bit limit applies, also when you are running it on a 64 bit windows). You can check the memory usage by opening the task manager (performance tab to see the usage, or the process tab to see if there are any other services that use a lot of memory).

In my experience sometimes very complex and large scene crash while rendering because of the memory usage , it can help to lower the bucket size.